The site of synthesis of the 19S gamma-globulins in dysgammaglobulinemia.

Lymph nodes and splenic tissue from patients with congenital agammaglobulinemia and dysgammaglobulinemia and from normal subjects were studied with the use of immunofluorescence and histochemical stains to determine the site of synthesis of the 19S gamma(1)-globulins. The two patients with dysgammaglobulinemia had high serum concentrations of the 19S gamma(1)-globulins and a marked deficit of the 7S gamma-globulins. These patients, as well as agammaglobulinemic children, had only rare or no plasma cells in their tissues. Cells were identified in sections of spleen from a dysgammaglobulinemic child as well as from normal individuals which exhibited specific fluorescence with an anti-19S gamma-globulin antiserum adsorbed with 7S gamma(2)-globulins and which stained positively with PAS and methyl green pyronine. These cells resembled the transitional cells described by Fagraeus.